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This "OP Book" Is an Authorized Reprint of the
Original Edition, Produced by Microfilm-Xerography by
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1966
V »
OLD MANORS
IN THE
COLONY OF MARYLAND
BY
ANNIE LEAKIN SIOUSSAT
SECOND SERIES
ON THE PATUXENT
* ar
MY LORD BALTIMORE'S SPRING, MANOR OF MATTAPANY
IMPRESSION MADE FROM SEAL OF MAJOR NICHOLAS
SEWALL, BY THE REV. J. MERRICK THOMAS.
DOCUMENTS IN POSSESSION OF THOMAS FAMILY
OF THE MANOR OF MATTAPANY
zrw
In one of *he storms which swept the shores of the Patuxent there was a
miniature l?.r.d lide between the very beautiful spring which comes up from
the roots of the tali trees and the house at Mattapany, and there was disclosed
a pavement of smsli round stones and other traces of where the dairy had
been in other days, also the ground work of a passageway between where the
old house stood and the offices which belonged to it. On the bluffs, not so very
Jong ago, could be found traces of fortifications — all these contribute to mak;
Mattapany one of our most interesting survivals of Colonial days. The old
letters and patents still in possession of the family are most interesting, and
the copv of the Sewail seal was made directly from one of these impressions.
In one of the letters Father Sewail speaks of his use of the name of Connor,
which in the troublous times of the penal laws he used for safety. It is a
matter of great congratulation to a community when such possessions can re-
main among those who have been "to the Manor born." No recollection can
be more valuable than that of the days spent at Mattapany when its Master
and its gentle Mistress were still among us.
F
i B4
• Oil
53 " - '
Copyright, 1913
BY
Annie Leakin Sioussat
£B« fiorb Q^afttmore (prtaer
H.M.TIMllUK, M|>., V. H. A.
To My Sons,
whose forebears were among the sturdy Pioneers who
" did first seat the Patuxent."
r
FOREWORD
In the presentation of this — the second of the series of "Early
Manors in the Colony of Maryland " — it must be borne in mind that
it is simply the transcription of lectures given before the Maryland
Society of the Colonial Dames of America, under the auspices of the
Historic Research Committee, in which the Chairman has endeavored
to preserve some traces of these early institutions so rapidly disappear-
ing. In many cases their lat»r history and that of the large plantations
built up in their partition is most interesting, but only the earlier lines
could be here given and only the very earliest documents used. The
destruction of so many records by fire in the Court Houses, especially
those of 1747 and 1882 in Calvert County, make the work more dif-
ficult and somewhat imperfect, but for the many opportunities afforded
the Chairman to gain a personal touch with what remains of the past
and to procure the views for illustration, her most sincere obligations
are due to a host of friends who will recognize their part and her
gratitude in the story of the Manors on the Patuxent.
Annie Leakin Sioussat,
Chairman of Committee on Historic Research,
Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America.
These sketches are to appear in three series, which may be bound
together if desired.
The Manors on the Potomac and its Tributaries.
The Manors on the Patuxent and its Tributaries.
The Manors on the Patapsco and its Tributaries.
8
OLD MANORS IN THE COLONY OF xMARYLAND
Second Series
ON THE PATUXENT
The Patuxent, broad and beautiful in its outflow in the Chesapeake
Bay, had long been known as one of the great highway routes for the
voyageurs — some white, some red — who came down from the far
North to trade for " Beaver, Furrs, and Corne, with other Corn-
mod ityes."
Its course was straight and clearly navigable for a great part of its
length ; its headwaters then lost in the dense woodlands of northern
Maryland, are gathered up today in a spring near what is now Mt.
Airy, in Frederick County, where the wayfarer may quench his thirst in
a draught from four counties. Traveled so early in the day, the scene
of many of the most important events in the life of the colony, it is
an historic waterway from its source in the uplands to Drum Point
on the one shore and Cedar Point on the other at its mouth, where
it empties with a splendid sweep around " the Island " into the inland
sea of the Chesapeake.
Along its shores appeared the settlements, in some cases contem-
poraneous with the seating of the Potomac and its tributaries, the
St. Mary's, the Wicomico and lesser inlets. With these Potomac
grants must be classed the manor lands which push back away from
the streams into the inland, the Forest, as it was called, which affords
an interesting shading of local differences in development, shown
between the two regions, the Forest regarding the River as less health-
ful and more adventurous, the River considering the Forest as some-
what at a disadvantage from its inland seclusion.
The thirty miles purchased from the Ycocomicoes on the landing
of the Maryland Pilgrims, Augusta Carolana, mentioned incidentally
as the Haronie of St. Mary's, was a very small part of that great
heritage of the Lords Baltimore, the Province of Maryland, then in
its first untouched magnitude of ten millions of acres — land and
water.
It" had a very gradual development, from the one County erected
in 1637 oi St. Mary's, with its two Hundreds, St. Man's and St.
George's, standing for the entire Western Shore, while the Isle of
Kent Hundred, erected into the County of the same name, performed
the like service for that lovely land, the Eastern Shore, and round
the head of the Bay. These Hundreds, the old Germanic survival, by
which the inhabitants could be quickly reached and mobilized, either
for peaceful elections or for military duty, constituted the next sub-
division, and although their boundaries were shifting they remained I
with us until the early part of the last century. Among the grants ,
chronicled in Charles County — but which at the time of its allotment
in 1 641 to that renowned traveller and diplomat, Captain James Neale,
still lay in St. Mary's — was Wollaston Manor.
The reproduction in the colony of the names of their old home
places by the adventurers helps us to link them with their estates in '
the mother country and induces some reflections upon the large mar-
gin between the details of the life and surroundings in Wollaston,
County Northampton, and the Maryland Manor.
P'ew of the gentlemen colonizers have aroused more interest or
have had greater exercise of imagination spent upon them than this
Lord of Wollaston Manor, and when we consider his man\ activities
in many lands this is not a matter of surprise. All far-away people •_
partake of the mythical and legendary.
His patent of two thousand acres called for the administration of
a Court Leet and a Court Baron, but it is questionable if the right
was ever exercised, since, as fast as good steed or flowing sail could
carry him, he rode, the King's Messenger on the King's Highway by
land and sea. Now in England at the Court for orders, now in
Spain and Portgual, then in Holland, and in the later days of his life
a prominent figure in the politics of the Province; his knowledge of
matters and men made him a valuable occupant of his seat at the
Council Table.
Tradition has woven a brilliant tracery about him and his belongings
and the story of the " Bloody Hand," borne in some of the quartering*
of his Coat of Arms, whereby it was set forth that at some shadowy
and remote period either he or one of his forebears (much latitude
being allowed), in his eagerness to reach the land to be the first to
claim the promised territory, cut off this useful member and threw it
ashore. More romantic, and less gruesome, was the tale of his elope-
ment with the youngest and most beautiful maid of honor, at the
Court of Queen Henrietta Maria, with the largess of jewels and
treasures bestowed on him in token of his pardon, the scar inherited
from a duelling ancestor which grew crimson in times of peril, all
these embroideries belonged to the days when research work was un-
known and delightful tales of by-gone worthies were told and stead-
fastly believed by our grand dames at the knees of their foremothers.
The sober truth was that as one of the " trusty and well beloved,"
in whom special confidence was reposed, he did great store of good
work, in diplomatic and dangerous service, for the King, the Duke of
York and my Lord Baltimore, all of whom in those critical times
needed every good man and true who could be mustered, with all the
help they could get.
The few exquisite and priceless heirlooms remaining proved to
their happy possessors, especially in the case of the mortuary ring with
the fine miniature of King Charles I. revealed by a tiny spring, and
the jeweled monstrance or sacred vessel for altar use, the devotion of
the subject and its appreciation by the King and those survivors who
came nearest to him, notably the unhappy Queen of England, Scot-
land and France, Henrietta Maria.
Causeen Manor was another allotment for service made in 1649/50,
according to early conditions of plantation, reaching back into the
territory now in Charles County; Nicholas Causeen sat in the Assem-
bly of 1 64 1 as Freeman and served the colony well in many capacities
as Burgess and other " emploies." His descendants are still to be
found not very far away from these original habitations.
II
In the country near Port Tobacco, the early Port u Paco, always
a great centre for Indian trade and warfare, St. Thomas Manor was
taken up under the first Conditions of Plantation of 1633 by Thomas
Matthews, Gent., of the old and well-known Charles County clan.
The land was claimed both for his due as headrights and by assign-
ment from Thomas Copley, Esq., who had also transported the requi- !'
site number to secure the broad acres held for so long in secular tenure
by the Jesuit Fathers. This notable estate was undisturbed in the
decision of the Provincial of the Order by which Mattapanv, the
1
Manor of St. Gregory, and the Manor of the Immaculate Conception
were reconvened to the Lord Proprietary. It constituted a great
stronghold for their work and possessed a fine library and many treas- |
ures in MSS. until its destruction by fire.
The year 1649 marked a very important era in the colony. There
were fresh accessions from England on the death of the King; there
were colonizations from other parts. The Puritans had come out in
large numbers to Virginia where the atmosphere was not always con-
genial in that stronghold of the Cavaliers, and shortly after the ar- j
rival of Elder William Durand and Richard Bennett an Act of Con-
formity was passed by the Virginia House of Burgesses. These
worthies had left their homes in England to escape Conformity, and
when the invitation oame from my Lord Baltimore to share in the
advantages of toleration in Maryland, it was speedily accepted and
a number of them, from three to five hundred, made a settlement over
Severn about the Greenbury Point neighborhood, and called it Provi- \
dencc, where they increased and multiplied.
William Stone had come up from Virginia with his family and had
been made Governor in the place of Thomas Greene, the Royalist,
whose untimely proclamation of Charles II. came so near to wrecking
the colony. The first Session of Assembly under Governor Stone was
held in 1649, April 2d to 2ist, in which was passed the Act concern-
ing Religion, known to us as the Toleration Act. At the next meeting
of that august body, in 1650, there were two Puritans elected from the
settlement at Providence. In 1653, five thousand acres were granted
Stone as Poynton Manor by special warrant from Lord Baltimore, but
12 S
as his Government was rendered unstable by the shifting of power un-
der the Commissioners, there were no more patents issued until the
Province was returned to its rightful owner in 1657-8. Poynton
Manor was, however, probably occupied much earlier, but survey and
patent were delayed because there were many grave problems over seas
whose very substantial echoes came to us.
The Survey of Rice Manor of 3000 acres in the same territory, now
Charles County, links us again with the stirring events which shook
the little colony to its foundations. It was made under Conditions
of Plantation of 1638 and laid out for William Lewis, a Burgess of
1637 — sometimes called Lieutenant — a most valuable aid to the Gov-
ernment, as he had acted as their interpreter for the Indians in the
very early days. The grant was dated 1654. Just before the Battle
of Horn Point. " Patented never," says the land grant, " but extended
by the creditors to William Lewis' heirs, for 99 years under his Lpps.
hand and Privy Seal in 1657, after the engagement in which he lost
his life."
Captain Cornwallis also added to his many acres in the Province
by the acquisition of 5000 acres of Mattawoman Manor on Matta-
woman Neck, afterwards made one of the boundaries of Charles
County.
Not the least interesting in these Inland Manors were the lands
set apart at this early date to be held in copyhold for the Indians.
Calverton Manor was situate " on a certain tract of land at the
Head of Wicomico River, called Chaptico," but reaching far back
into the Forest. " Given," in Lord Baltimore's phrase, " from us,
about 8000 or 10000 acres," of which 1000 were to be reserved for
him and his heires. Robert Clarke, Surveyor General, to be Steward
of the Manor — certainly not a sinecure in this case — and to keep
Court Leet and Court Baron, the Remainder of the Mannour to be
given to the Indians in grants of 50 acres with the exception of the
Werowance, none to be over 200 acres. Also certain quantity of land
to be assigned to adventurers or planters of English and Irish descent
from 50 to 100 acres.
13
As may easily be understood, the aborigines were slow to avail
themselves of the privilege of owning 50 acres, when the whole land
had <m lately been theirs. These, with Westbury Manor, patented
to Thomas Weston, Esq., the Manor of Snow Hill, granted to Abel
Snow, which was the subject of much litigation, and finally fell
Escheat to his Lpp., under the Act for Deserted Plantations, conclude
our little interlude concerning these inland grants and bring us to those
upon the Patuxent.
The Patuxent appears in our earliest chronicles as the scene of tribu-
lation to the trappers and traders, Eubanck and Smith, the year after
the landing, who, coming into the River to trade for Skins and Furrs,
as had been their custom, reached the Indian Town called Mattapany,
at the head of the River, where they were seized and detained by order
of the Governor for unlawfully trading in the newly acquired terri-
tory of my Lord Baltimore. His frequent warnings had been ig-
nored, and his authority defied. In addition to tin's they were also
charged " with being concerned in a practize to cut off the plantation
by the Indians," a much more serious arraignment, since at this time
the Red Men were in a state of irritable unrest — some of the tribes
already at war among themselves. The confidence of these aborigines
had been shaken in the Government, through reports supposed to have
been circulated by Captain Fleete and others, who had been coquetting
with both colonies — Virginia and Maryland.
In the conflict as to the control of that perpetual casus belli, Kent
Island, the arrival of the Pinnace Long Taile was the first chance to
meet the enemy in the open, and quite naturally they met with scant
courtesy and would have had but short shrift; it was deemed safer,
however, to wait for more evidence against them, so that their sojourn
was an unwilling one, their boat and cargo confiscated, and they were
finally sent away without arms or victuals in a canoe which they
borrowed from the Indians — " although," says Smith, " there were
three boats riding at anchor at the governor's door " — to make a jour-
ney of a matter of twenty leagues through the Indian Towns. They
had supped with royalty, Captain Fleete being set at supper with Cap-
tain Cornwallis and the King of the Patuxents, when they discussed
14
the plentiful crop of false reports concerning the strained relations of
the colonists with their hitherto friendly allies.
There was an unusually large number of Indian settlements along
the Patuxent at this time, and as late as the issue of Herman's map in
1676 much space is allotted to the little grouping of their villages,
especially down the South shore. The Mattapaniants had their range
from Aquasiac, the foundation of Robert Brooke's second plantation, to
the Bay.
This expedition was soon followed by the first naval engagement
in Maryland waters, and as its outcome Smith was indicted, tried and
sentenced for " Pyracy," the first of such procedures in the Province.
This period affords us the only glimpse of another member of the Pro-
prietary family in the part taken by George Calvert, the younger, in
negotiations with the aggrieved Indians, who dreaded a Spanish in-
vasion.
He had, in company with the young brother of Sir John Winter,
been inveigled into this adventure — the arrangement was, however,
not thought to be very advantageous to the Governor's interest, but
on the whole, and in comparison with the frightful massacres in the
sun ounding colonies in their contact with their white brothers, friendly
relations were maintained with the nearby tribes. The first grants
made in this region along the Patuxent River, according to the earliest
document in our possession, were all in St. Mary's County, rhere hav-
ing been no further erection until St. George's Day, 1650, when Ann-
arundell was created out of Providence and Proctors on the opposite
shore.
The official list of Hundreds, which was probably the old list exist-
ing before the erection of the New Calvert County, from 1634 to 1660,
herein follows:
St. Valentines 1
The Resurrection] Mount Calvert
Eltonhead
St. Leonard
South Cliff
North Cliff
- Lvons
15
The list of Manors within these Hundreds is as follows:
Eltonhead Manor De la Brooke Manor
Susquehanna Point Freehold Brooke Court Manor
Mattapanyent Freehold Mount Calvert Manor
St. Richard's Manor Could Spring Manor
Garners Creeke Great Eltonhead Manor
St. Joseph's Manor ["His Lordship's Manor of Patuxent
Resurrection Manor 1 Point Patience
Fenwick Manor Brooke Place Manor
Abingdon Manor
The Scribe who made out tin's Manor Grant Roll in the exquisite
old 1 6th century script did not concern himself with chronological
sequence. The first in order is that of Eltonhead Manor in St. Val-
entine's Hundred.
William Eltonhead, Gent.* had demanded and received 2000 acres
of land in 1648 for transporting himself and six able men, one maid
servant, one boy over 16 and one free woman into this Province here
to inhabit '' this very year," and this grant was to run from Mache-
watts Creeke, south side of Patuxent River, downward to Cedar
Point. No reference is made and no land assigned for the bringing
in of a wife. His sister, Jane Eltonhead, married Cuthbert Fenwick,
whose manor was not so very far away, thus making a strand in the
network of relationship, so noticeable throughout the country. He
had come in with Thomas Hatton and was the devoted friend and
ally of Lord Baltimore, to whose defense he gave his life.
A parchment was in existence some years since in which this grant
is described as " Little Eltonhead Manor," to distinguish it from
" Great Eltonhead Manor," just across the river. Later some liti-
gation discloses the fact that he took to wife the widow Taylor who had
previously buried her first husband, and who seems to have left an
impression of much executive ability.
Susquehannah Point is the next allotment, and while not a manor,
comes into the list of those important and strategic points of which
one must take account in the seating of the Patuxent. It was surveyed
16
for Joseph Edloe under the Conditions of Plantation, 1638, at Ports-
mouth ; 300 acres were assigned from Ciprian Thoroughgood and the
balance for his, Edloe's, services to Leonard Calvert, Esq. We find
him in the Province as early as 1642, but he seems to have traveled
back and forth, since he came in again in 1648 with William Elton-
head, who claims headrights for Edloe and his entire family. It was
also the seat of the Council, July 1, 1661, which decided upon the
expedition to make the descent upon the Dutch who had seated on the
Delaware, then within the original bounds cA our colony. It is here
that the very interesting tomb is to be found with the inscription,
" Here lyeth the Body of Xphcr Rousbie esquire, who was taken out
of this World by a violent Death received on Board his majesty's
ship, ' The Quaker Ketch/ Capt. Thomas Allen command'r the last
day of Oct'r 1684. And alsoe of Mr. John Rousbie, his Brother,
who departed this natural Life on board the Ship Baltimore. Being
arrived in Patuxent river the first day of February 1685, memento
mon.
Christopher Rousbie, King's Collector General, had his home here,
and the occasion of his violent death was an altercation with Col.
George Talbott, a member of the Council, Surveyor General of the
Province, and a nephew of my Lord Baltimore.
No modern tragedy has been more thrilling than this unfortunate
encounter between the Government official and the Councillor, the
dashing young Irishman, who, as Grace Calvert's son, came out to
find his fortune in the land of his kith and kin. His retinue was large
and possessed the characteristics of his people, an aptitude for getting
into trouble and an alacrity in the use of their skenes to settle it.
After this dramatic episode, $usquehannah reverted to the Pro-
prietary, and later in the day in the absence of his agent, Col. Henry
Darnall, the usual patent was executed by his wife as deputy in favor
of Richard Smith, Esq. Later it passed to the Carrolls.
Mattapany appears in strange guise as a freehold of 400 acres,
granted to Thomas Warr, carpenter, to be held, as were all of these
smaller grants, as of our Manor of West St. Mary's. The Jesuits had
17
relinquished it, as we have seen, and it had come back to his Lordship,
and with a laudable desire for tenants and quit rents, it was for a
time parcelled off in small holdings) it is soon referred to, however,
as the property of the late Mr. Warr, and before very Ion};, it was
to reappear as the Manor of Mattapany Sewall. These manor lords
had as neighbors the owners of the freeholds assigned in the inter-
mediate hinds, and the Manors of Kltonhcad, St. Richard's and St.
Joseph's had in their group Hopewells, Whites and Gardners.
Quite the earliest patent on the river comes next in the Manor of
St. Richard's, containing iooo acres, and of which the title is inter-
r^tin-j: It was surveyed for Luke Gardner, formerly surveyed for
his father by a false name, 6th December, 1640, viz., Garnett, who
claimed headrights for transporting his wife and four children, ac-
cording to His Lordship's Warrant, 26th August, 1651. He had
come in early and sat as Burgess in the Assembly of 1O37. That an-
other name than his own was used by Richard Gardner was not an
uncommon happening with the Roman Catholic gentry. Some of them
were retained long after the need of such protection had passed.
Indian relics are found all about these regions and a curious speci-
men was washed out by the tide not very long ago on the land of Dr.
Hodgdon, who has St. Richard's Manor in present-day keeping. To
this Manor of St. Richard's Luke Gardner added a freehold of 200
acres for transporting himself and Julian, his sister, into the province
in 1647.
The next on the Manor Roll is the allotment of St. Joseph's Manor
of 1000 acres, to Nicholas Harvey, who had transported himself, wife
and five servants here to inhabit. This came under special warrant of
his Lordship, dated 1642, and the survey was made in the same year.
This sturdy adventurer occupies quite a large place on the canvas.
He was detailed early in the day to undertake an expedition against
the Mattchewatt Indians. His settlement on the Patuxent was im-
portant and Harveytown, one of the ports of landing, was afterwards
validated by an Act of Assembly. The traces of this settlement, sit-
uated farther up the River than Town Creek, were remembered by
18
some of the very old inhabitants in the last generation. It constituted
one of the four towns of Calvert County: Harveytown, over against
Point Patience; Herrington, on Herring Baj — "with houses already
built there all uniform and pleasant with streets and keys (quays) on
the water." Vide Ogilvie's America, 1671, chap. II, p. 187. These
are all given on Merman's map, hut the streets and houses are some-
what startling; Calverton, on Battle Creek, and Warrenton.
The Manor of the Resurrection Hundred contained 4000 acres of
land, which was surveyed for Captain Thomas Cornwalljs on the
24th of March, 1650, according to Conditions of Plantation of Ports-
mouth, patented the same day. Here also a meeting of the Council
was held.
Fenwick Manor was surveyed for Cuthbert Fenwick before 1641 ;
it contained several subdivisions, among the most notable, Sotterly and
St. Cuthbert's. He appears early in the day as one of the youngest
and most trusty of the early colonists, in many positions of trust and
responsibility. The family in England, like many others, was a house
divided against itself, in this Civil War. Major John Fenwick was
of the branch allied with the Parliamentarians; as officer in the army,
he was given, it is said, the most weighty of responsibilities by Oliver
Cromwell, in the supervision of that dreadful scene upon the scaffold
at White Hall. Other members, however, came under the laws of the
realm against Papists and were hunted from place to place. It gives
one a realizing sense of the woes of England in those days to have
been shown the secret trap-doors so arranged that no one could suspect
their existence. To slip down the narrow steps into the contracted
room between the floors, where men have been hidden and cared for
for months in darkness and gloom, brings one back into the sweet air
and daylight of the twentieth century with the prayer in our daily
service, " Send Peace In Our Time, O Lord " in mind, with praise
and thanksgiving for a birthright in our own dear land, our own
Maryland.
Sotterly, called for the ancient home of the " Playtors " of " Sot-
yrle " in County Suffolk, as the fifteenth century scribe knew them, is
19
one of the most complete and interesting survivals of the old regime.
The story of the original grants in England, as they have passed from I
one to the other of the two houses, would furnish great delight to the I
antiquarian who could give the time to its pursuit, if any such be left in
this resistless tide of modern complexities.
On the shore of the Patuxent, nearby to St. Leonard's Creek, its !
curiously shaped building is quaint indeed. It is not of great height
but covers much ground in its irregular construction. The gambrel I
roof is pierced with the old triangular capped dormer windows, and,
built of staunch old oak timbers, it has bravely withstood the ravages
of time. The foundations, gables and porches are all of brick, and its j
flagged colonnade has been worn by the footsteps of many generations. \
For its interior the rooms are paneled, the ceilings and over-windows
beautifully carved, and the decorations for the alcoves, or china closets,
are made of quite small pieces of wood, which form the scallop-shell
pattern of the Middle Ages. The rooms are framed in solid walnut,
with doors of mahogany and silver finishings. The huge strap hinges
extend half-way across the door with a curious mechanical device,
which lifts the door from the carpet, as it opens.
The rose garden was another of its glories, where the sun-dial stands
with its inscription in many tongues, from many lands, the only monu-
ment which marks the place where lies today, somewhere in its mazes,
the mortal remains of the Governor of Maryland. The old traditions
were that if one were detained late at night on the country roads he
could hear sometimes the wheels of the Governor's chariot and four
as he drove up with his out-riders from the capital of the Province, or
the slow and mournful sounds of the funeral cortege, which had
brought him home, by way of the South River, across the ferry to his
last resting-place.
Coming down from the Fenwicks to the Hon. James Bowles, an
Englishman of large fortune, the marriage of his widow to the Hon.
George Plater brought the broad acres into that distinguished family.
It was afterward in possession of Dr. Walter Hanson Stone Briscoe
and his heirs, until now Sotterly has come into the Satterlee holding,
the first reunion of the place and people since the fifteenth century,
i
20
21
Distinguished men and fair women have been the production of
this part of one of the earliest manor lands, and memories of Anne
Plater, the White Rose of Maryland, still linger among her people.
The sub-division of St. Cuthbert's, owned by Walter Briscoe, Esq.,
at the far boundary of the manor and on the creek, which commem-
orates the Saxon Saint as well as the former owner, nestles down by
this inlet of the Patuxent, a quaint reproduction of one of the old
English countn houses; its broad chimneys at the back, the fine sweep
of the river, where the river road used to be, the old-fashioned garden,
all contribute to make thir. centre of truest Maryland hospitality a
notable feature of lower Fenwick manor.
The next manorial allotment brings us to the " honors and benefits "
conferred on an Englishman, who led out a notable number of relatives
and adherents to the colony of Maryland.
When Robert Brooke, Esq., in the months following the execution
of the King, arrived at the roadstead, at the mouth of the Patuxent
River, into which the ships still come out of the storm and stress oc-
casionally prevailing in the Chesapeake Bay, his journeyings in strange
writers were well nigh over, for as he sailed up the richly wooded
shores of the Patuxent River for twenty miles, he was in sight of his
own territory, since the greater part of the southern shore of the river
Mas included in the county laid out for him by unique and special
order of the Lord Proprietary.
Its metes and bounds were " the south side of the Patuxent River, be-
ginning at the Susquehanna point, extending to the middle of the woods
toward St. Maries, southward, westward along the middle of the
woods, betwix Potomac and Patuxent Rivers as far as Mattapanient
toward the head of the Patuxent, and from thence again eastward along
the river side to the said Susquehanna point into a county by the name of
Charles, Robert Brooke, Esq., to be its Commander."
There are other commissions; the list is too long to be given here.
They can all be found in the Maryland Archives, Assembly and Coun-
cil Proceedings.
22
23
Governor Sfone had been duly notified by Lord Baltimore, that the
SouthampLw... man was about to " set out with his next summers ex-
pedition, and further setting forth and having good experience of the
honor worth and ability of the said Robert Brooke, and of his faith-
fulness to, Sec, &C., Sic." He was constituted Commander of military
forces in his County, made Privy Councillor, given offices apparently
without number.
The Manor of De la Brooke had been surveyed in one of the most
beautiful portions of his domain, the oaths of fidelity were taken by
him and his sons, Baker and Thomas, and his companion Councillor,
William Eltonhead, gentleman, joined with him in taking the oath
for that office.
To give the description of James Walter Thomas, Esq., who has had
the best facilities for keeping traces of the most important survivals: " It
was a brick building, about thirty by fifty feet, one and one-half stories
high, with steep roof and dormer windows. The rooms on the lower
floor were handsomely wainscotted and the parlor was embellished
" with massive wooden cornice and frieze on which were carved roses,
lilies, and other floral designs. The house was destroyed about sixty
years ago, but it still stands in the recollection of many persons familiar
with its quaint architecture and handsome finish."
It would be quite impossible to comprehend the complications in
the colony which followed immediately on the heels of all this array
of procedure, for the man " whom the King (through the Lord Balti-
more) delighted to honor," unless we return very briefly to the hap-
penings in the Mother Country. The times were trouhlous times and
it is a matter of no small interest to see how the two Lords Baltimore —
the first, in his careful preparation of the setting forth of the colony,
the second, in the administration of his father's trust — had watched
the course of events and endeavored to right in the colony what they
had seen of wrong in the Kingdom.
The Petition of Right, chat direct descendant of Magna Charta,
had been made only a few years before the Maryland Charter, and
My Lord Baltimore, then in touch with the innermost springs of the
24
Government, had made its influence felt in the framing of the Charter
of Maryland. The Parliament had been prorogued indefinitely,
and it was a question in the minds of Englishmen whether all that
they had fought for in Hall and field was not slipping away from
them. And so we find among the first orders of the Proprietary, one for
Assemblies not farther apart than every three years. The first of
tiiese Maryland gatherings in 1635 had somewhat astonished his Lord-
ship, since the Colonists took the matter of law-making into their own
hands, and it took some travelling across the seas, of the Acts passed
by one and rejected by the other, before My Lord Baltimore had yielded
to the demands for these " extraordinary privileges." The fact that
his budget did not pass at the ensuing session was through no fault of
either the Proprietary or people, only for the reason that the schedule
was long " and they were forced into a crop at this time of the year."
Meanwhile, in 1 641, the contest had broken out between King and
Parliament. In Maryland, the progress of events over seas was mir-
rored with faithful exactness, and the difficulties which had arisen be-
tween the Puritans and the Churchmen were increased by the friction as
to the freedom of form of worship allowed under the Charter, as in the
instance of Lieutenant William Lewis, who in 1 638 interfered with the
devotions of some of the Puritan servants and freemen, and was uncom-
plimentary in his comments on sermons and ministers in general, and
also in Thomas Gerard's intrusion on their rights as to the use of the
chapel by the Protestant-Catholics in 1642. The same unrest prevailed
as to the influence of the Jesuit Fathers in the colony, and presented a
very serious question from the point of view of their ability to receive
donations of gratitude from Indian princes, King Pathuen having
early in the day presented them with Mattapany, to the great concern
of my Lord Baltimore. And as troubles never come singly a third
cause of disquietude arose in the necessity for a firm handling of the
savages about them, for the Governor and Council had just ordered
an expedition to reduce the Indians of the Eastern Shore, still contained
in the Isle of Kent County and the Susquehannahs, then and for some
time after, the deadly terror of the white man.
25
It was quite time for My Lord Baltimore to come out to his colony,
but although he had so promised himself and his people, in this he
was thwarted, and found himself placed under bond not to leave the
kingdom, so that Leonard Calvert, the Governor, at this most critical
period in the life -of the Province, wa~ forced to go home to England,
reaching there just as the King's standard had been set up at Notting-
ham, and the Civil War had begun. He staid long enough to realize
the defeat of the King at Marston Moor, which occurred while the
brothers were in conference at Bristol or some point very near by.
Giles Brent, Esq., had been appointed, in the absence of the Gov-
ernor, with large powers as Lieutenant-General, Admiral, Chief Mag-
istrate an.! Commander of Maryland.
Mr. Richard Ingle, a well-known and war-like adherent of Parlia-
ment, arrived on the scene, and evincing a turbulent disposition, it
became necessary for the Commander to seize his person until he could
answer to the charge of treason and the instigation of rebellion within
our borders. He, however, escaped through the agency of Captain
Xenle ami Captain Cornwallis, who were sharply called to account for
it by the next Assembly, they contrived to explain the position to that
body, although it is still a mystery to us. It really meant the beginning
of the Civil War in Maryland, and it was not long before the plun-
dering times were on and the Governor, who had in the meantime
returned, was forced to retire to Virginia, while the Great Seal, the
records, and the public documents were all dispersed abroad as part
of the spoil, leaving the little community without any of the appur-
tenances of government, with the loss of its materials for future his-
tory and the necessity for beginning its work all over again as to the
matter of records and conveyances. Into this kaleidoscopic condition of
things Leonard Calvert had brought back with him a commission tor
a Roman Catholic Council, to be composed of Giles Brent, John Lew-
ger, Thomas Greene, Thomas Girard and James Neale. It seems
an incredible condition, when one considers the straits of the Colony,
and the only solution is that given by the authorities of the day, that,
strange as it may seem, the extreme wing of the Roman Catholic party
26
had been in sympathy with Parliament, and from the Stoneyhurst MSS.
we gather that the nobles, the Provincial of the Jesuits and the Supe-
riors of the other Orders in England " were incessant in their efforts
to arrive at some understanding with the Army," and this position may
account for many incongruities, impossible otherwise to explain.
A note from a diary of the time gives a curious happening. When
a conference was called in which, as the old chronicle has i*t, " both
Papists and Fanatics did Agree " at the house of a citizen of London,
when My Lord Baltimore, well-known as a staunch and loyal son of
the Church of Rome, and Lilly, the Almanac-maker, one of the ex-
tremest of the Puritan movement, met in the house of a citizen of
London Town, to compose and propound terms to the King, to which
he could not accede. Bradley T. Johnson, in his Founders of Mary-
land, also states that the position of the Roman Catholics generally
was " that of sympathy with the Parliament, hoping for a larger tol-
eration in the success of the Puritans than they could obtain from the
King and Church of England; and quotes Clarendon and Rapin in
the statement that many Papists espoused the cause and entered the
Parliamentary Army because they expected " Liberty of conscience
for all religions." Whether these statements be true for England,
it certainly accounts for many grotesque situations in the Colony, for
which there seems no other solution.
Meanwhile, notwithstanding a special protection from Oliver Crom-
well to Lord Baltimore, the Parliamentary Commissioners had arrived
and speedily undertook the reduction of the plantations in the Ches-
apeake to their due obedience to Parliament.
The Commission included Captain Robert Denis, Mr. Richard
Bennett, Mr. Thomas Stag, and Captain William Clayborne, for
the reduction of Virginia. The next step in the instructions was that
" upon your arrival in Virginia you shall use your best endeavor to
reduce all the plantations," Sic, &c, Sic; further, " you are to cause
and see all the several acts of Parliament against Kingship and the
House of Lords are received and published and alsoe the Act for
abolishing the Book of Common Prayer," Sic, Sic, Sic
27
It is ordered that all writs warrants, are to be issued in the name
of the Keepers of the Liberties of England, by authority of Parliament
under the hand of one or more of the Council hereafter named, vizt.,
Robert Brooke, Esq., Col. Francis Yardlcy, Mr. Job Chandler, Capt.
Edward Windham, Mr. Richard Preston and Lieut. Richard Banks.
The last chapter in this curiovs story is that upon July 3, 1654, an
order passed the Council " for as much as the right Honorable, the
Lord Baltimore, by his instruction to the Governor and Council, here
dated the 2Sth September, 1653, has discharged Robert Brooke, Esq.,
from being of the Council .... Justice of the Peace or Commander
of any county within this Province, the Governor, William Stone, had
thought fit, for divers reasons relating to the public good, and doth
this day, by advice of Councill make void and villify an order or
constitution made the 21st of November, 1650, touching the erecting
some part of the south side of the Patuxent River into a county by
the name of Charles County, and instead thereof do now erect, make
and appoint both sides of the Patuxent River into one county by the
name of Calvert County, Bounded on the south side by Pyne Mill
River or Creeke to the head thereof, and from thence to the head of
Patuxent River, being the northerly boundary of St. Mary's County,
and bounded on the north side with the creeke upon the western side
of the Chesapeake Bay, called the Herring Creeke, and from thence
through the woods to the head of the Patuxent River, being the south-
erly bound of Anne Arundel County and the Governor this day ap-
pointed Mr. Richard Collett this day to be High Sheriff of Calvert
Countv afsd."
Richard Preston had land assigned to him in the Patuxent as early
as 1651. He had probably occupied it earlier, as was frequently the
case, and while it was in no sense a manor, it occupied a prominent
part as a seat of so much that pertained to the welfare of the Province.
In 1652 Richard Preston had been called upon to raise men for the
war north of the Patuxent. His land and house were directly upon
the river, and by petition of several of the inhabitants the seat of gov-
ernment was temporarily removed there, and the first meeting of the
28
Assembly under the new order of things was held there Oct. 20, 1654,
when he was elected Speaker of the House. In the Act of Recognition
by this Assembly of work done by the Commissioners in the reduction
of Maryland and the acknowledgment of the authority of the Keepers
of its Liberties, Mr. Thomas Hatton, who had been the bearer of the
Act of Toleration, and having come out of England with his fine
inheritance of official service since the days of Queen Elizabeth, Mr.
Job Chandler, equally loyal to his Proprietary, each refused to sit and
act as Burgesses in respect that they have taken oath to the Lord
Baltimore. They were fined and made also to pay charges for the
election of their substitutes. One of the enactments of this Assembly
was the shifting of boundaries and the substitution of new names for
the old settlements. " The inhabitants of Herring Creek and the Cliffs
shall pay charges to thr.t county formerly called Anne Arundel, now
Providence." Patuxent County also takes the place of Calvert, retain-
ing, however, its metes and bounds, and to save their sensitive souls
on the subject of Saints' days and names, the first county appears as
Mary's, and this is true of all the prefixes. Mr. Richard Preston
is for the better convenience of the inhabitants of Patomock and Pa-
tuxent to be the Keeper of the records of the Province. Large pow-
ers arc also given him for treating with the Indians.
Rarely lias a more complicated situation existed than in our colony in
the years following the arrival of the Commissioners. Governor Stone,
loyal to the Proprietary, and yet sorely puzzled as to how he
might best advance his interests, first declined to treat with the gen-
tlemen who were to reduce Maryland. Realizing, however, that the
Parliament had triumphed, he made partial submission and retained
office " until the pleasure of the State of England be known." But
he was finally unseated and a commission of three undertook the gov-
ernment of the Province. After all the unhappy consequences which
followed upon these events, the Commissioners found themselves
again in a most embarrassing position. They were administering
the Province under the authority of the Keepers of the Liberties
of England, but the Lord Protector had already dispensed with this
29
bulwark of safety. Not only so, but he had further complicated the
situation by writing to Richard Bennett on January 12, 1654, just a
few weeks, according to the old style calendar, before the fight at
Horn Point on Lady Day, March 25, 1655.
This document set forth: " We do will and require you and all
others deriving any authority from you, to forbear disturbing Lord
Baltimore or his affairs or people in Maryland." This brought con-
sternation into the ranks of the commissioners, and Richard Bennett
speedily sailed away, and upon his information as to the victory over the
forces of My Lord Baltimore, Cromwell speedily wrote another charac-
teristic letter with modifications, averring that his strictures had only
reference to the boundary disputes between Maryland and Virginia.
This was a safe outlet of family discussion well-nigh perennial in or-
dinary times, but at that writing the two colonics were sisters in afflic-
tion and bovindarics were not on their minds as much, perhaps, as in
the heads of those who would, to use Father Copley's simile, " fish in
troubled waters."
The erection of Calvert County was probably the last important
transaction in the Land Office for some years; for instructions having
been given by Lord Baltimore to Governor Stone that his authority
must be reasserted and the Government reinstated, with allusions to
the cowardice which had prevented their use of the military force of
the Province, the muster was called, the army of three hundred was
mobilized and the descent was early made upon Preston on the Pa-
tuxent, where the archives were supposed to be securely stored. Com-
mander William Eltonhead had charge of this division of the forces
and it is related that the women of the household did their best to
hold the fortress, but, short of ammunition, their only refuge was in
their opinions very definitely expressed, and it was probably this last
coup which cost the Commander his life after the battle of the Severn.
Of ten who were selected for execution, six were spared and four
were shot.
Madame Verlinda Stone's account of the engagement, in her letter
to my Lord Baltimore, presents so complete a picture of the engage-
ment, with its consequences, that we must give it entire:
30
For the Right Honourable the Lord Baltemore, these present.
Right Honourable:
I am sorry at present for to let your Honour understand of our sad condition
in your Province. So it is, that my Husband, with the rest of your Councel!
went about a month agone with a party of men up to Anne-Arunde!l County,
to bring those factious people to obedience under your Government. My
Husband sent Dr. Barber with one Mr. Coursey with a Message to them, but
they never returned againe before the fight began. Also he sent one Mr
Packer the day after, with a Message, and he likewise never returned, as I
heard: but so it is, that upon Sunday the 25. of March they did ingage with
the people of Anne-Arundell, and lost the field, and not above five of our men
escaped; which I did conceive ranne away before the fight was ended; the
rest all taken, some killed and wounded; my Husband hath received a wound
in his shoulder, but I heare it is upon the mending. My Husband, I am con-
fident, did not thinke that they would have engaged, but it did proove too
true to all our great damages; They as I heare, being better provided then my
Husband did expect; for they hired the Captain of the Golden Lion, a great
ship of burden, the Cap:ains name is Roger Hemans a yong man, and his
Brother, who have beene great sticklers in the businesse. as I hear. Captain?
Ilemnil was one of their Counccll of War, and by his consent would have had
all the Prisoners hanged; but after Quarter given, they tried all your Coun-
cilors by a Councell of Warre, and Sentence was passed upon my Husband
to he shot to death, but was after saved by the Enemies owne Souldiers, and
so the rest of the Councillors were saved by the Petitions of the Women, with
some other friends which they found there; onely Master William Eltonhead
was shot to death, whose death I much lament, being shot in cold bloud ; and
also Lieutenant William Lewis, with one Mr Leggat and a Germane, which
did live with Mr. Eltonhead, which by all Relations that ever I did heare of,
the like barbarous act was never done amongst Christians. They have
Sequestred my Husbands Estate, only they say they will allow a maintenance
for me ami my Children, which I doe beleeve will bee but small. They keep
my Husband, with the rest of the Councell, and all other Officers, still Pris-
oners; 1 am very suddenly, God willing, bound up to see my Husband. They
will not so much as suffer him to write a Letter unto mee, but they will have
the perusall of what bee writes. Captaine Tylman and his Mate Master Cook
are very honest mfii, and doe stand up much for your Honour; they will
informe you of more passages then I can remember at the present; and I hope
my Brother will be downc before Captain Tylman goes away, and will write
to you more at large; for he is bound up this day for to see his Brother, if
they doe not detain him there as well as the rest; the occasion I conceive
of their detainment there is, because they should not goe home, to informe
your Honour of the truth of the businesse before they make their owne tale
31
In England, which let them doe their worst, which I do not question but you
will vindicate my Husbands honour which hath ventured Life and Estate to
keep your due heere, which by force he hath lost. And they give out words,
that they have won the Country by the sword, and by it they will keepe the
same, let my Lord Protector send in what Writing hee pleaseth. The Gunners
Mate of Hemans, since his comming down from Anne-Arundell to Patuxent,
hath boasted that he shot the first man that was shot of our Party. All this I
write is very true, which I thought goode to informe your Lordship, because
they will not suffer my Husb.-nd for to write himself e: I hope your Honour
will be pleased for to looke upon my Sonne, and for to wish him for to be of
good comfort, and not for to take our afflictions to heart. And nothing else
at present, I rest
Your Honours most
humble Servant
Virlinda Stone.
Post-script.
I hope your Honour will favour me so much, that if my Sonne wants
twenty or thirty pounds you will let him have it, and it shall be payd your
Honour againe.
Hemans the Master of the Golden Lion is a very Knave, and that will be
made plainly for to appeare to your Lordship for he hath abused my Husband
most grosly.
At the next move in the game of chess, Lord Baltimore appointed
Josias Fendall as Governor of Maryland. This seemed suspicious to
the commission, and so he was arrested and held under surveillance.
But when he had satisfied them he would make no changes until mat-
ters had been fully settled at home he was permitted to enjoy that high
and honorable calling, the Governorship of Maryland.
The story would not be complete without a reference to Doctor Luke
Barber, who, loyal to My Lord Baltimore, trusted friend of Cromwell,
seems to have been sent to straighten out matters in the Province. As
the result of his understanding between the Proprietary and the Pro-
tector, it may have been made possible for Lord Baltimore to take
his Province back again with the least possible expenditure of force
and energy. We know that the negotiations were begun, the govern-
ment was to be surrendered to the " Ld. Proprietary, and to his juris-
diction all were to submit."
32
The drama was nearly at its close, and on November 30, 1657, these
negotiations were completed by my Lord Baltimore, promising am-
nesty to all in rebellion, confirming their titles if they elected to remain
in the Province, or a safe conduct out of it, and reaffirming the Act
Concerning Religion.. On March 24, 1658, William Fuller and Rich-
ard Preston surrendered the government into the hands of the Proprie-
tary. So that by the time matters were well and duly settled, the
King had come into his own again on both sides of the water, and
among the first concerns coming before the Government of the Province
was the confirmation of patents to those whose surveys had earlier been
made; so we return gladly to fhe peaceful and picturesque Patuxent
and follow the manors and their patents, their men and their manners
from Drum Point, on the North shore upward.
The statement has been made that the river was the dividing line
in matters of faith, all the Roman Catholics being on the south side
and the Protestants on the north. This was really true of the Brooke
family, and partially so for the rest of the world.
Great Eltonhead Manor had been allotted under special privilege
to Edward Eltonhead, Gent., of London, for 10,000 acres, as he had
agreed to transport 100 men into the Province. Just what his influ-
ence was we cannot tell, but the greatest latitude was extended to him
in the permission to have seven years to furnish his tally, and in the
unquiet days of the Civil War, Lord Baltimore expressed much con-
cern, Jest Eltonhead should not have had his warrant. The amount
was finally divided in half and 5000 acres patented in 1658.
Its very locality is now forgotten, and but for its place as a boundary
and its chrin in the old title deeds, it could never have been identified
On the Calvert side and a portion of Great Eltonhead Manor is
the estate known as Rousby Hall, and back of it was Mill Mount.
Rousby was one of the few places destroyed in this region in the War
of 1812 by the British, its then owner, Major Fitzhugh, was sup-
posed to have been actively hostile to the enemy, and so the beautiful
old house paid the penalty.
•
33
34
The original owner was Col. John Rousby, whose wife was Bar-
bara, the daughter of Henry and Frances Morgan, of Kent County.
She was as fearless as she was beautiful, and it is to her pen that we
owe our account of the troubles in the colony arising from the factions
in the Protestant Revolution.
A rather barbaric wooing was the portion of her son's widow. The
Hon. John Rousby died in 1750, aged twenty-three, leaving his wife —
beautiful, dignified and courageous — only twenty years of age.
Suitors came thick and fast, but Col. William Fitzhugh, of Vir-
ginia, adopted tactics of a somewhat doubtful character. His career
under Admiral Vernon at Carthagena had made him somewhat mili-
tant in method. His devotion seemed likely to be unrequited until
one day, on leaving her, he caught up her baby and carrying it into
the boat, held it over the Patuxent waves until she changed her mind.
They lived happily, remarkable to relate, and her little daughter be-
came Madame Plater, the wife of the Governor. Platers and Rousbys
were names to charm with. Today all that is left is the beautiful
tombstone still on the place, the last fragment to keep touch with the
past.
Patuxent Manor was taken up as a proprietary holding, of which
the centre was Point Patience. John Ascombe had had his grant of
the Point and his patent was recorded as early as 1658. In 1662, ac-
cording to a record taken before the Court House was burned, his
Lordship's Manor of Patuxent near Point Patience was proposed is
a seat for a State House in an Assembly of which the Burgesses from
Calvert County were Preston, Manning, Truman and Richard Smith,
We know the territory better as the place where for so long Col. Somer-
ule had his fine home and from whence the generous hospitality of
this large plantation was dispensed.
Several freeholds intervened between this and Brooke Place Manor,
identified in the old records of the Brooke family as " over against De
la Brooke." The manorial honors of Robert Brooke, Esq., did not con-
tinue very long, for at the comparatively early age of 48 years he had
laid his burdens down.
35
36
Upon this estate of Brooke Place Manor he had built a residence
for his son Roger, a reproduction, it is said, of the home which he had
left across the river, De la Brooke Manor, and in view of the incur-
sions of the strange Indians coming into the Province, he had also
constructed a blockhouse near the river shore. This defense covered
the approach from the house to the old House Spring, which is perhaps
the only landmark with which Time has not had its way. It is found
today untouched through all the centuries of its flow under the leafy
canopy into the white gravelled basin where the cool and moist earth
holds the lovely frame of ferns which make its setting. A more ex-
quisite bit of nature would be hard to find. It also serves us as one of
the landmarks to the burial ground where it is between the site of the
old blockhouse and the old House Spring, that the remains of this
founder of the Patuxent colony lie today unmarked and unknown, save
to the line of succession from father to son, who have been shown the
spot. But nature, always prodigal, soon effaces boundaries, unless
some substantial obstruction to her wiles is erected, the day may come
when there will be no one who can identify the place so wonderfully
preserved for us. Shiloh and Cedar Hill, on which is the place of
interment, are still occupied by the family.
On the north side Abingdon Manor comes next in the record, and
here again we find evidences of great concessions made to an individual.
John Abingdon was early in the Province and had had divers and
sundry tracts laid out for him as freeholds: Thorpe, Moreley, " about
Abingdon Cliffs next the utmost bounds of St. Leonard's Hundred."
The manor, however, called for iooo acres, granted him in this year
of restoration, 1658, " a special manor by His Lordship under his
hand and greate scale, to be holden as of his manor of East St. Mary's,
with His Lordship's own hand at London."
John Abingdon served his colony and county acceptably for many
years, assisted in adjusting the tangled threads of Captain Cornwallis'
affairs, when that worthy had retired to England, was appointed Jus-
tice by Cecilius in 1661, traded largely with the Indians and added to
the commission of Calvert County, 1 664- 1 669, of the quorum. He
37
RICHARD HARRISON, 1665-1716
ABINGDON MANOR
38
returned home to England only to end his days, and we soon find
Richard Harrison, apparently a connection, 1 665-1 716, endeavoring
to smooth out certain legal complications, with the sister of Abingdon
and his niece, Muriel, who had been left his heiress and executrix. This
arrangement was successful and the Assembly passed a special Act
in the case, and Abingdon Manor passed into the hands of Richard
Harrison, in whose family it remained for generations.
Crossing the Patuxent, where the last of these early manors is sit-
uated, we find Brooke Court Manor, and a more beautiful site could
scarcely have been selected. The Indians had been appreciative of its
advantages, and it was, originally, a very old Indian town. It lies just
on the river shore, with a fine natural beach, a plateau which ascends
from the river and a second one, on which stood the original building.
Robert Brooke had asked that he might have 1000 acres at Matta-
panient, the settlement well up on the Patapsco, " but the Indians
being presently there seated by order of the governor," 1000 acres
were taken up on the south side two necks below the Indian town:
other records locate it asAcquisiack, the old Indian name for Aquasco,
now in Prince George's County. It has come down through Brookes,
Digges, Craycrofts and Hoxtons, and only left the family possession
as late as 1820. It was one of the estates which possessed a domestical
chapel, with the chaplain in residence, from which Mass wa; served
to the country around. Madam Hoxton, the last lady of Brooke
Court Manor, having been a very devoted Roman Catholic. The
Rev. John Bolton was one of the last who thus served the countryside
And accompanied Madam Hoxton in the visit she paid to the great
circle of relatives in the yellow coach, the admiration of the younger
generations. Only a few years ago, in identifying the grant, a letter
was received from Mr. Samuel McPherson, who purchased the manor
from Stanislaus Hoxton, Esq., in which he recorded the fact that the
house had been far too large for the families living there, and as
their people came from the Forest and feared malaria, it was taken
down and rebuilt two hills further back, the material from the old
house, still substantial, after 150 years, having been used in the
39
MADAME SUSANNA HOXTON, THE LAST LADY
OF BROOKE COURT MANOR
40
construction of the new building. " A part of the old manor house,
which had held the chapel and priest's room, was not available, since
occupants of the chamber were continually roused by the sound of
the priest's voice saying his prayers in an unknown tone." Traces
of the old Indian town are to be found today in the beautiful speci-
mens of arrow heads of flint and cornelian, dug up in the deep plowing.
The pictures of Madam Hoxton and her forebear, Richard Harri-
son, Esq., have had many vicissitudes; they have sojourned for a while
at the bottom of the channel off the present Fort Carroll, through col-
lision of the boat in bringing them to their owner, Mrs. Rachel Weems
Reynolds, of Sherwood Forest, Baltimore County, where they found
congenial company, since upon the walls hangs the portrait of David
Weymyss, fair-haired young Jacobite, who, with his sister, the Lady
Wilhelmina Weymyss, was brought hither from Scotland after their
father's death, in 1 7 1 5. David Weems took to wife Margaretta Har-
rison shortly after her sister, Susannah Harrison, had married Walter
Hoxton, Esq. It is a matter of great congratulation to a large circle
of descendants from their progenitor, Richard Harrison; 1 665-1 7 1 6,
that after so many untoward happenings the portraits are once more
among their " ain people."
There are other manors, in the region of the Patuxent and its tribu-
taries, not upon these early lists, as in the case of Portland Manor on
the Anne Arundel side, which was originally surveyed in a large tract
of nearly 3000 acres, of which Jerome White, one of his Lordship's
counsellors, received 2000 the remainder to Henry Darnall, Esq.
The manor was occupied later by John Darnall, and had gone down
in succession in the family of the original patentee.
Anne Arundel Manor was also a proprietary possession, erected
later, and let to Benedict Calvert by Charles V., Lord Baltimore.
The Manor of Mattapany, mentioned in the beginning of these
lists as a freehold, of which it may here be mentioned Col. Nathaniel
Utie held possession, whose links take us back through his uncle,
Richard Collctt, to Nicholas Farrar, of Little Gedding, was perhaps
one of the most important points in the colony. We have followed it
41
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from its earliest mention as an Indian trading post, as a storehouse
and mission for the Jesuits and by them returned to Lord Baltimore.
The Proprietary family had accessions from time to time in the
person of Philip Calvert, who had come out in 1657, an<^ wno was
speedily followed by Charles, the " sonne r.nd heire " of Cecilius, the
2d Lord Baltimore. In the party which came into the Province
at this time were the Sewalls, who had remained in England during
these times of distress, and had fared but badly at the hands of the
government. Henry Sewall had endeavored to rescue his property
from the grasp of the party which, under the accusations of de-
linquent, malignant, or recusant were sure, sooner or later, to wring
from them their lands and fortunes. He pleads for restoration of his
estate as heir to his brother, Richard Sewall, of Corley, County War-
wick, who, although he had come in on the Truro Articles and had
served acceptably in the Protector's army, was yet mulcted in this
fashion. The lands granted to Henry Sewall, therefore, on this side
of the water, must have been very soothing to his sense of loss, and
when we know that the first grant made to him was that of Mattapany,
we realize that his was a goodly heritage.
Jane Lowe, the sixth daughter of Vincent Lowe and Anne Caven-
dish, accompanied her husband to the colony. Their connections in
Darbyshire and Yorkshire were among the distinguished people of the
day, and their alliance with Pilkingtons, Cokaines and others made an
influential family connection. The grant to the Sewalls was made as
follows: " In consideration of 15000 pounds, paid to our dear son,
Charles Calvert, and otherwise upon Conditions of Plantation, a
grant of 1 000 acres, being on the south side of the Patuxent River in
Calvert County, a parcel of land called Mattapany, together with a
Court Baron and all things belonging thereto." This warrant was
afterwards surrendered in order that a larger one might be made,
with an additional grant of Eltonhead Manor, which through failure
of heirs had become escheat to his Lordship. Other grants were
Charles Gift and Denby, which, taken altogether, form the Manor
of Mattapany-Sewall. Henry Sewall returned to England about 1OO4
43
*4w ,
THE OLD BOND CASTLE ON THE BAY^SS i . V, P«fj,xtt
(see appendix) A
ihoy/^O V-
44
and there died. His widow became the wife of Charles III., Lord
Baltimore, and was welcomed by Cecilius and the family, with all her
clan, brothers as well as the stepsons and daughters, that she brought
to Charles Calvert.
A letter from one of the Jesuit Fathers gives quite a little view of
the manor in his day :
" A fortnight ago I accompanied Father Carbery to Mattapany-
Sewall, 1 6 miles north of St. Inigoes Mattapany, an Indian
name, is situated on a hill on the south side of the river, about two
miles above its mouth. Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore, Proprietor
of Maryland, had made Mattapany his favorite residence from 1662-
1684, when he returned to England, where he died in 1714, as good
a Catholic as his father and grandfather, but his son, Benedict Leonard,
wishing for the proprietorship of Maryland, which had been taken
from his father by William and Mary, had turned Protestant, and was
a member of the English Parliament.
" His charter, as Lord Proprietary, was restored to him instead
of the Kingdom of Heaven in 171 5. The residence of Charles Calvert,
which was also a fort, had so much decayed that the grandfather of
Father Sewall had built a fine brick house at a short distance, and
in that manor house Father Sewall was born." He says, in conclu-
sion, " the people in these parts are very much alike for faith and sim-
pleness to Lancashire people, but not so all Maryland."
In one of the letters to England, Charles Calvert refers to a note
wriiten him by his father as to his place of residence. It reads:
" As for that Caution yr. Lp. is pleased to give me for my owne
security (my house at Mattapany standing so near the water) I humbly
thank yr. Lp. for your advice and shall endeavor my owne security by
removing up to Zachia and shall also be very cautious of what shippes
I go on board of." We find in the proceedings of the Upper House
of the 28th October, the reason for this anxiety: " This House seri-
ously considering the endeavor of the pirates last summer to have
surprised the person of the Rt. Hon. the Ld. Prop, and with him the
magazines kept at Mattapany, for the defense of the Province desire
45
v
r
1
DINING-ROOM IN OLD BOND CASTLE
'see appendix)
46
the Lower House to join in providing a convenient Guard for defense
of his Lpp., and security of this Magazine. An appropriation of
100,000 lbs. is moved, in addition to the sum already named, and the
appointment of Col. William Burgess is made to the command of
suitable forces for that purpose."
The next entry is: " I have already built a country house for sum-
mertime at Zachia, according to the fashion of building houses in this
country, but by what I have done already I find building here to
be very chargeable and am loth to bestow much more of it, least though
the place be so healthfull when I have done Cis should not like it."
Alas for human plans, the little heir did not long survive to be con-
sulted as to his wishes for the future.
We find while still Governor, in 1679, he had written: " I am
resolved to give order to my new attorneys to lett my house, for since
persons of the Romish persuasion are not permitted to be in London, it
will not be convenient for me to keep that house any longer." Ever
careful of his in-laws, he writes by the same ship: " I understand
there has been great trouble about a Gowne for my wife's daughter
Jennie and that you are blamed by some of my wife's relatives, but I
shall take care to clear you in that or anything else they may take un-
kindly from you." He is most concerned about the moving of his
goods and writes: " Herein, good brother, pray faile not, and in par-
ticular take special care of my trunk in my dressing room in which
are my deeds and writings for all my estates in England, Ireland and
elsewhere." The postscriptum as usual contains the most important
directions: "From my wife your sister who earnestly entreats you
that good care may be taken of a great trunck which stands in her
chamber betwixt the bedd and the chimney, there being in it several
bottles of cordial waters, likewise some flent glasses, which will be bioke
if not with great care carried away. The best chest of drawers must
have an exact accompt and lastly my scritoire may be carefully re-
moved."
Hut as the days go on and the desire to see his children prevails he
writes that, " if the house in Southampton buildings be not lett out
47
it be kept unlett and my goods remain therein, having changed my
resolution touching my children whom I now resolve shall live together
there, and to that end I am resolved to have my son Cecil sent for to
town, hoping by May to be there with them myself."
Lord Baltimore returned home for the last time in 1684 and found
in the tumultuous times, through which England was passing, much
to engage all his powers. We find that an order was given that the
Lady Baltimore and her daughter were to be discharged from custody,
but that the priest, who had also been seized, should be safely se-
cured. It is quite evident that the domestic chaplain had been appre-
hended, as well as Lady Baltimore and her family, for an offense against
the penal laws in force at that time, which were peculiarly severe.
It is well known to some of her descendants that this custom of having
a priest in residence was continued in her family on this side of the
water for generations. The household at Brooke Court Manor, as
already cited, being only one of many such instances.1
My Lord Baltimore survived all of these discomforts and mourned
the loss of the Lady Jane, who departed in 1701 and was buried at
St. Giles-in-the-Field in London. He married later Mary, and fourthly
Margaret Charlton, of the old family whose seat was at Hexham, with
which the Calvert family had other interesting links.
As we have seen, My Lord Baltimore was gathered to his fathers
in 1 7 14, and the son, Benedict Leonard, who reigned in his stead, sur-
vived him only thirteen months, leaving Charles, the fifth Lord Balti-
more, a minor, who confirmed to the Sewalls the grant of Mattapany-
Sewall. The manor has come down in almost unbroken succession to
those of their blood and has been for the last half century in the pos-
session of the family of the late George Thomas, Esq., adjutant First
Maryland, and captain in the Second Maryland Army of Northern
Virginia, of the Confederate forces during the Civil War.
In the neighborhood of the upper Patuxent in Prince George's
County large tracts of land were surveyed and taken up by the Snow-
1 1 am indebted to the late and lamented Henry F. Thompson, Esq., for the
above fact concerning the apprehension of Lady Baltimore.
48
NEW BIRMINGHAM MANOR, RICHARD SNOWDEN, 1690
NOW IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY
49
dens. Richard Snowden, Sr., son of Richard Snowdcn, of Wales,
built Birmingham Manor House as early as 1690. It was destroyed
by fire August 20, 1 891 , and a pathetic incident in its destruction is told,
In that while the fire was at its height the panel over the great mantel-
piece, which usually contained a portrait or landscape painted on the
wood, cracked open with the heat and revealed to the helpless be-
holders great store of parchments and papers, of which the hiding place
had been until then entirely unknown. Richard Snowden, the younger,
added, from time to time, very largely to the manor lands. The Snow-
den furnaces were well known on both sides of the water, and the only
product which Mas allowed them, namely, that of pig iron, was a
great source of wealth, so that in 1 7 19, we find 10,000 acres and over
patented to him, which at his death had increased until it included the
plantations now known as Birmingham, Snowden Hill, Fairland,
Montpelier, Oakland, Snow Hill, Avondale, Alnwick, Elmwnod,
Brightwood and Maple Grove, and part, if not all, of the town of
Laurel.
It should here be noted that Birmingham Manor House was fortu-
nately preserved to all the generations to whose hands it had passed,
v'thout any restoration which would have destroyed its antique ele-
gance. " The site was commanding, the grounds were extensive and
the approaches impressive. The house was built in the old English
style of bricks to the second story, where shingles formed side walls
with a leaning toward the roof. There were recess windows to the
second story; there was a porch in front, through which the massive
front door was reached, and the door opened into a quaint hall where
were to be found large old-fashioned fireplaces, and in the rooms as
well. There was a nearby terrace and a quaint old garden, edged
with immense borders of box, with the family burying ground noL
very far away."
Montpelier, another division of the Manor, was on the great north-
ern and southern Post Road and the country house retained the old tra-
ditions of hospitality for the people who continually passed to and fro
and who did not hesitate to stop there for a night.
50
MONTPELIER, SNOWDEN ESTATE
51
The manor lands of the Snowdens extended well up on the Patuxent,
where, although it was never navigable, there was always the stream
which could turn a mill, and as neighbors among the landed proprie-
rors of the same nationality, the men of Wales, there was the Davis
family, whose large holdings gathered up into the estate of Green-
wood, which included a part of another Snowden Manor. The last
Master of Greenwood, Allen Bowie Davis, Esq., churchman, statesman
i nd scholar, will long be remembered and his career should prove an in-
spiration " for those who conie after."
In Clean Drinking Manor we find one of the more recently erected
— if the date of 1680 comes under that description. It, however, has
g< ne through many vicissitudes of boundary changes and marks many
periods.
At the time of its choice by Col. John Courts of Snroxton, York-
shire, it was in the upper part of Charles County. When Prince
George's was erected in 1695 it was included in that division. Fred-
erick County having come into being in 1748, this manor land wa:»
therein included, and when in 1776 General Montgomery was re-
membered by a grateful State for his gallant campaign in Canada by
the bestowal of his name on the new county, provided for the rapidly
increasing settlement of these parts, these fourteen hundred acres taken
in 1680, patented in 1699, may be found in this much-named
territory.
Its springs of purest water were famous long ago in the days when
travellers stopped on their way to and fro to reach the Bladensburg
ublic road and enjoyed the ever-ready hospitality of the manor people.
In 1750 Charles Jones, Gentleman, married Elizabeth Courts and
the present house was then begun.
The tract of land known as Hayes was purchased from this manor
by Captain Arthur Lee of Blenheim, Charles County, and conveyed
to Major Yates of the same County in 1756.
In 1762 the Rev. Alexander Williamson built the house now stand-
ing on the plantation of Hayes, then supposed to embrace a thousand
acres more or less.
52
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HAYES, FORMERLY INCLUDED IN THE MANOR OF CLEAN DRINKING,
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
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HAYES, FORMERLY INCLUDED IN THE MANOR OF CLEAN DRINKING,
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As the parsonage of Prince George Parish it was thought to be con-
veniently situated for the territory covered by that ecclesiastical divi-
sion, comprising a part of Prince George's County and all of what is
now Frederick County.
Mr. Williamson departed from these scenes in 1785, and his will,
leaving his property to his three nieces, was administered by H. T.
Townshend, Benjamin Stoddart and James Dunlop. It was pur-
chased from the estate by Mr. Dunlop, and has descended in an un-
broken line from Lairds and Dunlops to the possession of George
Thomas Dunlop, Esq.
Mount Calvert, near the present dividing line of Lyons Creek, the
boundary between Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties, was surveyed
for Philip Calvert, in 1657. The Chancellor, for by this title he is
always known, had patented Wolsely Manor, in St. Mary's, which
took its name from " one of the most ancient families of England,"
who were represented in the early colony by Anne Wolsely, the wife
of Philip Calvert, youngest son of George, first Lord Baltimore.
Later, when he married Jane Sewall, " my wife's daughter Jenny,"
his manorial holdings were chosen within easy travel of Mattapany
Sewall in the Manor of Mount Calvert.
The Manor of " Could Spring," surveyed for Josias Fendall, was
made void in the trial for treason against my Lord Baltimore, when
Fendall attempted to inaugurate a republic in the colony. It is not
easy to locate, although some day a clue may be found for it.
The Manor lands, with their glories and responsibilities, have de-
parted ; their boundaries are almost impossible to trace, but the Pa-
tuxent flows on serenely, bearing on its bosom the swift-moving
steamer, as miraculous in its turn as the many-sailed ships whic
brought our people here were to the aboriginal lords of the soil; the
bark canoe of the Indian has given place to the noisy and odorous little
motor-boat, but the men who made the land, who put into it their
loves and hates, their life and death, have left us as our heritage the
free and sovereign State of Maryland; and, having arrived at the
haven where we would be, we end our journeyings for today — and
the curtain falls on the Patuxent and its Tributaries.
55
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THE SITE OF CALVERTON, ON BATTLE CREEK,'CALVERT COUNTY
56
APPENDIX I
To William Fuller was allotted in 1658 a tract which has in the patent
no name, but which we know later as Middle Fuller, and to-day as Bond
Castle. It was built as a portion of the house still standing about this date,
the " new part " having been erected after it came into possession of Holds-
worths and Bonds, the chimney bearing the inscription J. B. and A. H. Anne
Holdsworth was the heiress of the family notable for their fortune and great
landed possessions in that portion of the County lying near the Chesapeake Bay.
In the early days it possessed remnants of its defences against the Indians, who,
according to the Treaty of 1652, were to come by water and not by land on
their visits to the white man. This tract was near that of Richard Bennet, and
had the advantage over trees as boundaries, as "thiee holes in the cliff" were
more substantial than the fast vanishing forest. The interior possesses a very
beautiful specimen of the extension of a mantel shelf with the supporting closets
across a long and beautifully proportioned room. The panel in the centre
had different interpreters, one averring that it was intended for Newgate
Prison; another tradition gives it, and far more probably, as the home of the
Bonds in the country which they had left — Scotland. The great open fire-
place, the hand-wrought iron strap hinges, latches, and door locks mark a very
quaint survival of a very notable period. Madam Juliet Bond, the last hostess
of Bond Castle, gave us a cordial welcome, and told most interestingly of the
age of the great timbered beams which ran across the ceiling, with contrasts not
flattering to a modern dwelling of which she had watched the trees cut down,
the planks sawed out and the house built in short time, and her comment was:
" Green trees, green people, green house."
57
APPENDIX II
The value of Mattapany as a citadel, an arsenal, a fortress of defense was
well proven in many attacks and last exemplified when, as late as the time of
the Protestant Revolution in 1688, it was besieged by that unsavory bird John
Coade and his faction, as the late Dr. William Hand Browne used to call him.
Madam Barbara Smith has left a terse and graphic account of the situation
when she went to London and made her petition in person to the King. There
were doubtless many such gifted and devoted women in "all and every" of
the Hundreds and Counties, but we happen to possess these three epistles in
which Madame Vcrlinda Stone writes my Lord Baltimore for her husband after
the Battle of the Severn, Mary Taney petitions the Archbishop of Canterbury
for a Rector to be sent to Christ Church, Calvert County, and Madam Barbara
reports on the Colonial conditions in 1689.
The Narrative of Barbarx, Wife of Richard Smith, of Pattuxent River,
in Calvert Co., Province of Maryland
" Upon the 25,!l of March last a rumour was spread abroad about the mouth
of Patuxent River that 10,000 Indians were come down to the Western Branch
of the said River, whereupon my husband went up .... where he found noe
Indians there a stronp report that 9000 were at Mattapany at the mouth of the
Patuxent and chat they had cut off Captain Bourne's family (who had then
Great Eltonhead Manor, which included the Island now known as Solo-
mons) and hail inforted themselves at Mattapany which was all false."
She poes on to say, however, that it had the desired effect — " all the Country
rose in arms " — the report was only a sham and the pretense piven for arming
was that the Papists had invited the Northern Indians to come down and cutt
off the Province, their descent to be about the end of August when roasting
ears were in season, and they (the faction), therefore, rose to secure the Mapa-
zine arms and ammunition, first at St. Marys and then at Mattapany.
The call for an assembly from Coade had pone unheeded, " Sheriff Taney and
Coroner Cleppett refusinp to summon Burpesses for it; they instead drew u^
an abhorrence and protest."
"The County of Ann Arundell which is accounted the most populous and
richest of the whole Province, and wherein is but one Papist family, held out
and would not eiect any Burgess."
58
" Yett all this while, not until my home coming which was the 26 of De-
cember last there was not the least appearance of any foreign or home Indian
coming to distress us. Mr. Taney and my husband were still detained pris-
oners at my coming away.
In London Dec 16S9 Barbara Smith."
, v
W- mm ''n]—- '
tat iwh^
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THE LAST WINDMILL IN THE COUNT/
59
THE EFFIGIES OF THOMAS BROOKE AND SUSAN FOSTER, IN WHITCHURCH, HANTS
RESTORED BY THEIR AMERICAN KITH AND KIN
COURTESY OF GEORGE H. BROOKE, ESQ., OF PHILADELPHIA
60
APPENDIX III
THE BROOKES IN ENGLAND
In a correspondence between the late Arthur Spayd Brooke and Miss Whit-
tingham, of blessed memory. Mr. Brooke says:
Perhaps the earliest Englishman of our connection was Walter, described
as a man of learning, a legal writer of high repute, who is mentioned by
Blackstone in his Commentaries on English Law. The home of this gentleman
was in Chester as early as 1230. The records show a fair chain with perhaps
one doubtful link. Another notable member was Sir Robert Brooke, 1508,
Chief Justice in the reign of Mary 1553-58.
Richard Brooke, said to be the nephew of Sir Richard Brooke, Chief Baron of
the Exchequer in the reign of Henry VIII., married Elizabeth Twyne, daughter
of John Twyne, Gent., of Whitchurch, Hants.
Richard Brooke's will Jan. 14, 1588/9, Whitchurch, Co. Southampton, Gen-
tleman. Confirmed Feb, 16, 1590, in presence of Thomas and Robert, his sons.
lie leaves "To the repairs of the church at Whitchurch £1. 3. 4 to the poor
at my Burial .£3.
To Thnma . my son my leases held by the Blessed Trinity at Winchester,
my lease of Knoll, my wood in Chilgrove and Freefolk. To Elizabeth my wife
my lease of the parsonage at Whitchurch for her life with the remainder
to Thomas my son. For my said son Thomas 300 sheep sundry wheat malt
etc horses cows and carts. To my said wife for her life free lands and tene-
ments in Whitchurch and Freefolk remainder to Thomas my son. Remainder
to Robert my son and my right heirs
To my daughter Barbara Brooke £20 per annum for life out of the Manor of
West Fosbury commonly called Bacons To Robert my son (illegible) To Bar-
bara my daughter £300 at her age of 23 or her marriage
To Thomas my son £30 during his mother's life time To my daughters
Barbara and Dorothy a silver tankard and 12 silver spoons
To Thomas my son my silver basin and ewer
To Richard my son £100
To Harbara my daughter £100 more
Residue to my wife Elizabeth Brooke and appoint her sole executrix
Proved May 6 1594 by Eliz. Brooke relict and executrix."
6l
Lktter from Vicar of Whitchurch, H. Edmund Sharpe, to Miss Whit-
tincham, Young Men's Friendly Society-, Winchester Diocese,
Whitchurch Rectory, Hants
I was very interested in receiving your letter with notes of the Brooke
family. I often wondered where the family went to, and your note is the an-
swer.
There is a beautiful Brass which I now give you:
Pietatus Opus
This grave (ch griefe) hath swallowed up with wide ami open mouth
The body of gOoJ Richard Brooke of Whitechurch, Hampton South,
And Elizabeth his wedded wife, twise Twentie years and one.
Sweet Jesus hath their souls in heaven, ye ground flesh, skin and bone.
In Januarie, worne with age, ilaie sixteneth died bee.
From Christ full riftccne hundred years and more by ninety-three;
But death her twist of life in Maie, daie twentieth did untwine,
From Christ full fifteen hundred years and more by ninety-nine.
They 'eft behind them, well to live and grown to good degree,
First Richard, Thomas, Robert Brooke the youngest of the three;
Elizabeth and Barbara and Dorothee the last
All six the knot of nature, love and kindness, keeping Fast.
This toomstone with the plate thereon, thus graven fair and large
Did Robert Brooke, the youngest sonne, make of bis proper charge.
A citizen of London State by faithful service Free,
Of Marchant greate Adventurers a brother sworne was bee;
And of the Indian Companie, come gain or loss or lim
And of the Goldsmith liverie, All these God gifte to him
Tnis monument of memorie in love performed bee
December thirtie-one from Christ, Sixteen hundred and Three.
Anno Domini, 1603-
Laus Deo.
BROOKE NOTES
1602. Robert Brooke, b. at London ye 3d daye of June, 1602, being Thursday,
between 10 and 11 of ye clock in xe forenoon, being Corpus Christi day.
From Brooke Grove Record, Montgomery Co., Mo.
Robert Brooke, Co. Southampton, Gent., Wadham College. Matric. 28 April,
:6i8. aged 15. B. A. 6 July, 1620. M. A. April 20, 1624.
62
MATRICULATES OF OXFORD
Robert Brooke married Mary Baker, of Battel!, ye 25 Feb., 1C27, being
St. Mattbyas Day and Sbrove Tuesday.
20 of Dec, 1628, Rev Robert Brooke was presented to tbc Rectory of Whlck-
ham, Co. Durham, by the Bishop of tbat Diocese.
Baker Brooke, eldest son of Robert and Mary, was born at Battell Nov. 16.
Barbara Brooke, born at Whickham, 1634.
Mary Baker Brooke, wife of Rev. Robert Brooke, died the same day.
1635. Robert Brooke, Clerk, widower, aped 32 and Mary Mainwarlng of
St. Giles-in-the-Field, Spinster (were married), consent of the worshipful
Rogrr Mainwaring, D. D., Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Field, 9th May, 1655.
Rev. Robert Brooke presented by the Bishop of St. Davids, as Prebendary,
Trailing Co., Brecon.
Willi reference to his religious faith, Mr. Brooke says " there is nothing but
contradiction. One tradition sustained by very circumstantial evidence makes
him a Romanist," Father Devitt, S. J., of Georgetown College, confirms this.
Di\ry of the Marches of the Royal Army, Camden Society, Whitchurch
Apainst the north wall of the chancell a faire monument, the statue of a m?.n
in a barr-gnvne and a woman
Inscription "Thorn. Brooke Ar. aetat 52: ob 13 Sept 1612 •
Susanna uxor ejus, filia nater max, Thomas Foster Mi'.itis in parochia H". ns-
don com. Hert.
[One of the Judges K B. Mon. Ins at Hunsdon]
The monument of Thomas Brooke and Susan Foster, his wife, from its
former position in the chancel would seem to denote that be must have been
Lay Rector of Whitchurch, or rather Lay Improprietor, having a lease of the
tithes from St. Cross Hospital, Winchester.
Symond's Diary of Marches com.
" Friday 18 October 1644 His Majestie &c left Sarum and marched toward
Andover, Wallers force being at Andover.
This night the King lay at White Hart in Andover, the whole army ir, the
field. Saturday as soon as light the whole army marched after the enemy.
The King lay at Whitchurch at Mr. Brooke's his howse that night.
Sunday the whole army was marching but they rec'd orders to return to
their quarters .... The reason for the King's stay was for General
Ruskin, who was behind, as also Earl of Clevland coming from the relief of
Portland Castle, and a very wett forenoon."
Monday 21 October His Majestie &c left Whitchurch the generall rendezvous
upon the Downe neare Kings Mills house, (at Sidmenton)
His Majestie lay at Kings cleere 7 myle from Basing.
63
>iM I
THE GRAVE OF ROBERT BROOKE ESQ., COLONIST, 1655
BROOKE PLACE MANOR, CALVERT COUNTY
64
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